Ghosts of my Past
by XemeraldmoonX
Summary: My first Naruto fanfic.  It's the story of a young Chunin named Midori.  She leads a fairly normal, happy life until her father is murdered one day by a mysterious rogue ninja who seems to know a lot about Midori.  Mostly actionmystery, with some romance.
1. Chapter 1

-1 **Author's Note: **_This is my first fanfic. I wrote it with my awesome cousin and one of my best friends. I think it's pretty good. It's mainly adventure/action, but there's some romance thrown in too. The first chapter's pretty boring, but it gets better, honest. ;)_

_Also: I'll be getting a Xanga soon, and anything you want to know about any of my OCs/stories will be on there and possibly on Deviantart as well, because I draw._

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I walked toward my house, eager to get home. I'd just finished a stupid D-rank mission that I hadn't even wanted to do. But my family was running low on money, and my father and I had to do all of the missions we could, no matter how pointless, just to get by.

A couple of streets from my house I saw smoke drifting through the sky. I couldn't see the source very clearly, but I was pretty sure it was coming from somewhere around my house. I quickened my pace, curious about where it might be coming from.

As I turned the corner to go to my house, I spotted a crowd of people outside my house and realized the plume of smoke was coming from my house. The crowd was buzzing with chatter. Most of them weren't shinobi, but I spotted Shikamaru and Choji when I got closer.

I ran up to them. I was worried now. I couldn't see the fire; it must have been coming from the other side of the house.

I ran up to Shikamaru and put my hand on his shoulder. "Shikamaru!" I said.

"Midori!" he exclaimed. "I thought you were inside!" His tone suggested that my friend was very relieved to see me.

"Yeah. We thought you were home. Haven't seen you at all today." Choji said. As usual, the chubby Genin was ravenously devouring chips.

"Well, I wasn't home, as you can see." I snapped, anxiously trying to see over the heads of the other people with no avail. "What's going on here?" I asked.

"We don't know. The back of the house is burning; the fire started a minute ago. I'm pretty sure it's your dad's room. It's probably some sort of fight." Shikamaru replied.

"Well, hasn't someone done anything about it?" I asked, growing tenser and more worried every second.

"Yeah, some ANBU went in a little while before the fire started. If they don't come out soon though I think I'm going to go alert-" Choji began.

He was cut off by a scream of agony from the house. It sounded like a boy-a small boy. My heart skipped a beat. My brother Daichi. I shoved through the crowd to get to the house, ignoring my friends' protests.

I wrenched the door open and slammed it shut behind me. When I saw what the interior of the house looked like, I wasn't surprised. I'd expected it to be like this. However, I still felt a jolt when I saw it.

All the furniture was disheveled. Books were strewn all over the floor, ripped and floating in pools of scarlet blood. The mats and chairs were slashed open. I could see kunai embedded in the wall, often accompanied by blood that resembled splatters of red paint on the wall. The table was smashed in two and was completely singed. A small plume of smoke was coming from it, but I could hear crackling from upstairs and saw smoke drifting down from upstairs.

Gaining composure, I walked up the stairs, careful not to stab myself with the sharp, cracked railing. The smoke got thicker as I got higher up. By the time I turned the corner to go o my father's room, my eyes were watering and I had trouble breathing.

My father's room was burning, just like Shikamaru had said. The wall farthest from the door was pretty much gone, and the flames had started devouring the other walls too. The room was so full of smoke I couldn't see very well. I could make out three dark shapes on the ground ahead of me. As I moved closer to see what they were, my stomach flipped over and threatened to regurgitate my lunch. The mangled bodies of three ninja were on the ground. A pool of crimson blood was beneath them, slowly getting bigger as the corpses' wounds steadily exuded blood.

Two of them I recognized as ANBU by their masks. They weren't in as bad shape as the third one; they looked like they'd been killed quickly and hopefully painlessly.

I couldn't even recognize the third one. It was face down and contorted in very disturbing and unnatural ways; many of its bones must have been broken. It was completely covered in blood, and its left side was scorched and blackened. The wounds were so deep that I could see the fractured, ivory-white bone and the innards. Some kunai and shuriken were still embedded in its back, sides, and various other places. Feeling queasy, I gingerly turned the corpse over. I at least wanted to try to identify it before leaving.

When I saw who it was, I almost couldn't believe it. This bloody, distorted corpse floating in the scarlet pool before me was my father.


	2. Chapter 2

I just stood there, blankly staring at the bloody mass before me. My head was swimming with thoughts and emotion. Pain, sadness, disbelief, anger…all swirling around and bumping into each other in my mind. I almost couldn't believe what had happened. How had this happened? My father was one of the best shinobi in Konoha. He'd survived countless missions, and no matter how dangerous they were he'd always come back. Ever since I was a little girl, he'd seemed invulnerable. I'd always been sure he'd be there for me whenever I needed him, regardless of the situation. I'd clung to this belief my whole life. Now he'd been slaughtered and become this gory cadaver. And it had happened so fast-I hadn't been gone very long. Who would have done something like this? And how had they been able to kill my father and two ANBU so quickly? They would have to be amazingly powerful. My stomach clenched with fear as it dawned upon me he or she was probably still here in the house.

My train of thought was broken by a scream coming from the direction of my brother's room. Then I remembered my brother. I got up, trying to gain composure, and ran as stealthily as possible across the hall.

I stopped short right before the door, careful not to step on the recently and swiftly killed bodies before me. I gingerly stepped over them and cautiously peered through the door.

A figure was standing thee, completely motionless and composed, in the center of the room. I could only see the back of him, but it appeared he was dressed in an ANBU uniform and appeared to be taller than me. He had raven-black hair and his ANBU mask was off.

In front of him, my younger brother was crouched on the ground, trembling and shaking as if he were in pain. I couldn't see his face; he had just collapsed onto the floor.

When it didn't appear as if either of them were about to move, I pulled out a kunai and threw it at the mysterious shinobi. As I threw the kunai, I couldn't help thinking that this ninja looked familiar to me. His jet-black hair and his build were so familiar to me, but yet I couldn't remember where I'd seen him…

He dodged the kunai with incredible speed. I was amazed by his reflexes. I'd never seen anyone react that quickly, even to an attack they could see coming. As the kunai hit the wall, he put his mask back on and turned to face me.

"Well, well, look who it is." he said. He seemed to be not much older than me, maybe a year or so. There was something in his voice that I recognized, though I wasn't sure what. "I haven't seen _you _in a while."

When I didn't respond, he spoke again.

"You mean you don't remember? Oh, Midori, I'm surprised. I thought someone as bright as you would be able to." he said, teasingly feigning disappointment.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "And how do you know my name?"

"I don't really think you need to know at this point." he replied calmly.

I tensed. "Well, maybe I would like to know the name of the guy that just slaughtered my father, burned my house, and tortured my little brother. Just maybe." I snapped.

He chuckled. "Ah, Midori, just as I remember you. But as I said before, you do not need to know who I am."

"And why is that?" I asked, losing my patience with him.

"Because what use would it be for you to know my name if you're going to die right here?" he said. "Telling you would be pointless, really."

I barely had time to react to his next movement. He grabbed a kunai and flung it at me, aiming right for my chest. I just barely dodged it. It grazed my arm and made a small cut.

I ran over to where Daichi was doubled up on the wooden floor and stood over him protectively like a human shield. I threw a kunai at the mysterious ninja, purposely missing him. I hoped he wouldn't notice that I was actually aiming for the light about which, if I hit it just right, would fall right on top of him.

His movements were, again, amazingly fast: he ducked to avoid the kunai and sidestepped swiftly to the left to prevent being hit by the big glass projectile. It fell to the ground with a deafening crash. Glass shards tore through the air like deadly needles. In a stupid but effective act of instinct I turned around and let my back get riddled in order to protect my brother. I gasped in immense pain as the fragments pierced my shirt, chain mail and skin; they were blunter than my terrified had perceived them to be, but they still hurt. However, I was determined to protect Daichi, so I didn't falter.

Just then I glimpsed him rapidly making hand signs.

"Dragon Flame Jutsu!" he cried, shooting a huge flame at me.

I felt the blaze strike me. A wave of heat crashed over me. The flames tore through the back of my shirt and devoured my chain mail. It licked at my skin, and the heat intensified as I was burned. My legs and back suffered the most damage; I gasped in pain, unable to scream.

Then my attacker stepped up to me, the inferno encircling both of us. He pinned me to the wall and I felt cold metal press against my neck.

_I'm going to die, _I realized. _He's going to kill me, and I can't do anything to stop him._ Of course, it had been pretty obvious from the beginning; someone like me would never be a match for someone that could dispatch four ANBU and a jonin so quickly. And yet I'd gone up against him anyway, and I was going to get killed for it. How stupid of me.

What happened next happened amazingly fast. One second I was being held up against the wall, a kunai to my neck, and then I heard the door open on the other side of the room. My attacker's grip loosened, and then he was gone. I fell, and I could faintly hear the sound of people rushing toward me over the menacing crackle of the blazing inferno around me. The last thing I was aware of was a sharp pain in the back of my head as I hit the ground, and then everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

I slowly regained consciousness. The world came back to me slowly: feeling began to return to my body, I could make out the blurry shapes of people around me, and I was thinking, albeit groggily. I was still in the same place, and I realized the fire had been extinguished. The stink of smoke still lingered heavily in the air. Two of the walls had been devoured by the hungry flames.

All of a sudden I felt a sharp pain in by back and legs where I'd been burned. It was agonizing. The back of my head was also throbbing. I winced and inhaled sharply.

"She's alive! Midori, are you okay?" I heard someone exclaim. The voice sounded familiar; it took a second for me to realize it was my friend Amaya. She was a medical ninja. The pale, black-haired kunoichi was leaning over me, rubbing cool ointment on my burned legs.

"Do I _look_ okay to you? Don't ask stupid questions." I managed to rasp. My throat felt like a chimney clogged with smoke, and it was difficult to speak.

"Yay! She's back to normal! Well, sorta, I guess." Amaya said. "At least she's herself again."

"Now listen up, Midori." Amaya said with an air of authority. She always liked to be in charge. "I'm putting ointment on your burns. I've already put bandages on your most severe wounds. Once we get you stabilized, we're gonna take you to the hospital, 'K?" When I didn't reply, she snapped, "Well, we're taking you there, whether you like it or not. Deal with it!"

Then another voice I recognized spoke. "Daichi has been moved to the hospital, where-" Kakashi began, but Amaya cut him off.

"Oh, who cares about her brother? Midori's much more important!" Amaya said. Kakashi hit her in the head, and she cried, "Ow! Kakashi-sensei, what was that for?"

"Don't interrupt." he said rather sharply. "As I was saying, Daichi has been moved to the hospital, where Lady Hokage is healing him. She's the only one who can treat his current condition. That's why Amaya is here right now."

"Yeah, if we hadn't come when we did, that guy back there would have killed you or you'd have died from loss of blood!" Amaya exclaimed as if it was the most amazing thing ever.

I sighed at my friend's bizarre, disturbing enthusiasm. I heard another annoyed sigh from in back of me.

"Jeez, Amaya, you're so troublesome." I heard Shikamaru say. For some reason part of me was glad he was here, but I didn't know why.

"Oh, shut up, Shika. You know you were more worried about her than any of us were." Amaya snapped.

Shikamaru didn't even retort. He just walked over and knelt down beside me. "You feeling better?" he mumbled.

I nodded. I was aware of my heartbeat quickening a bit. My cheeks felt warm for some reason. This was strange. Shikamaru was one of my best friends, but lately I'd been feeling weird around him. It was annoying, but part of me _liked_ it. It was all very confusing.

"Good. Oh, here you go. You might need these if you want to see. They fell off before when you hit your head." he said, grabbing something from the floor beside my head. I tried to take my glasses from him, but my arms were all bandaged up and burned. When he saw that I couldn't take them myself he gingerly slipped them onto my face.

The first thing I saw the room came into complete focus was Shikamaru's face above mine. He had the same bored expression he always did, but I could tell he was glad I was okay. I caught myself smiling a bit; a lazy grin spread across his face too. Somehow, he could always find a way to make me smile almost unintentionally, no matter what the circumstances were…

"Awww, you two are so adorable!" Amaya teased. She had a bad habit of saying the wrong things at the wrong time. Idiot.

I blushed and looked away, embarrassed. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Shikamaru kick Amaya over. She spilled the rest of the ointment all over herself. She stood up, so angry I wouldn't have been surprised if she tore Shikamaru's head off right then and there. I couldn't help but chuckle despite myself.

"Hey, what was that for, you son of a b-" she began to screech.

"Okay, well that's enough of that!" Kakashi said, clapping his hands together rather loudly to silence Amaya before she could say something obscene and get into a fight. Shikamaru and Amaya didn't exactly get along, and if they fought it wouldn't be very pleasant to listen to. "I think Midori's stabilized enough. We can take her to the hospital now."

So they took me to the hospital. When I got to my room, I realized how exhausted I was. I drifted off into a deep, troubled sleep as soon as I lay down on my bed.


	4. Chapter 4

-14th chapter, finally. Not much to say about it, other than that my friend I'll Be Your Lie helped me write the dialogue between Midori and Amaya.

_I sat there, slumped up against the tree's trunk, trying in vain to sink into the bark and disappear. I watched all of the other children around me playing, having fun. _They_ belonged here, in this strange, alien place. I didn't. As much as I wished I did, I just felt like an outcast, a freak. I couldn't just go up and talk to them, but I didn't want to go home either. _

Besides,_ I thought, _this isn't home anyway. _Sure, they could tell me it was, but no matter how much they tried to convince me, it wouldn't work. This place-Konoha, or whatever it was called-just wasn't-_

"_Whatsa matter?"_

_I looked up and shrank back, frightened. The speaker was a boy who looked about a year older than me. That would mean he was seven or eight. He was stocky and serious-looking. He was squinting down at me, staring, and I squirmed uncomfortably under his gaze. His short, black hair was messy, and his clothes looked well-worn. The most intriguing thing about this child, however, were his clear, soft blue eyes, as blue as the sky above. _

"_I said, 'Whatsa matter.'" he asked me again._

"_Nothing." I squeaked._

"_Nun-huh. There's gotta be suttin' wrong with ya." _

_I looked up at him sharply. "The correct way to say that would be, 'No. There must be something wrong with you.'" I corrected him, stressing where he'd messed up._

_The second it had left my mouth I regretted it. _Oh no, I bet I offended him! _I thought miserably. _Now he's going to hurt me!_ I shrank back even more, bracing myself._

_But instead I heard laughter. I opened my eyes. He was laughing a high, somewhat hysterical laugh that made me snicker too. He finished laughing and plopped down on his rear. His face had become soft and relaxed now. I realized that he wasn't that much taller than me after all; maybe only a couple of inches or so._

"_You're funny!" he said._

"_How so?" I asked him._

"'_Cause you're all proper and stuff." he replied. "Kids ain't supposed to be like that."_

"_Hmm. Well, I am." I said._

"_Will you answer me now?"_

_I thought a moment, pondering whether or not to tell him who I was and where I was from. He _was _a stranger, after all. But he seemed nice enough. "I was sitting alone because I just moved here. I don't have any friends. My daddy sent me to the park, but I didn't want to go talk to anyone."_

_The boy looked at me for a while longer. I shifted uncomfortably. "Well," he said, "I'll be your friend."_

_I blinked. Back in Kirigakure none of the other kids had ever even talked to me. They thought I was too smart and mature for them; they'd called me boring. Now this boy was offering to be my first friend ever, even though he'd never spoken to me before._

"_Um, okay." I replied, unsure of what to do._

"_Good!" the boy smiled, grinning from ear to ear. "What's your name?"_

"_Midori Koshima." I replied._

"_You have a real pretty name." he said. "Green is a nice color."_

"_Why, thank you." I thanked him. "What's your name?"_

"_I'm Kenshin!" he exclaimed loudly as if he wanted the whole world to hear him._

I awoke, utterly confused by the dream I'd just had. Why was I dreaming about my childhood friend? My father had just been killed. Shouldn't I have had a nightmare about the killer, or the blazing infernos of hell, or something like that? Of course I should have. But instead I'd dreamed about when I was six years old.

I was so consumed by thought that I hadn't realized someone was sitting beside me. I only realized it when he called my name.

"Midori?" I didn't even have to look to know it was Shikamaru.

I was a bit startled to see him in such a position. He was sitting there lazily, his arms crossed and resting on my bed. His head was resting there too. He was gazing at me intently. His butt was on the chair, which was about a foot away from the bed.

I blushed and cursed myself. Why did I have to notice where his butt was?

He tilted his head to the side in a cute, confused way. "Why are you blushing?" he smirked, extending a hand to touch my overheated cheek.

"I…I…I…well…" I stammered, his fingers a millimeter away from my face. Just then the door swung open. Shikamaru jerked his arm back and sat up.

"Midori!" exclaimed a rambunctious Amaya. "Are you okay? How's your head? IwassoworriedaboutyouwhydidyoudothatandI'mgonnakickyourasswhenyou'reallbetter!"

I blinked. "Uh…what?" I said, befuddled by her fast speech. She always did that when she was energetic, and I was never able to understand what she was trying to say.

"Humph. And I thought you were the smart one." she simpered. "You can't even understand me!"

I rolled my eyes. Amaya was making no sense, as usual. I saw anger flash in Shikamaru's eyes and he attempted to smack Amaya in the head.

Amaya ducked just as Shikamaru was about to make contact. "You missed me, deer boy!" she sneered.

They were both silent for a second, just glaring at each other like immature children. I sighed. Amaya's gaze flickered to me for a moment, and then went back to Shikamaru.

"Shika, go away!" she snapped.

"Why?" he sounded very irritated. "And please don't call me that!"

"Because I have to have a private conversation with Midori." she replied. "And I'll call you anything you want, pineapple-head."

Shikamaru opened his mouth to protest, but closed it. He heaved himself up out of the chair. "See you tomorrow, Midori." he breathed as he passed me. He walked away and closed the door behind him, leaving Amaya and I alone.

"Why'd you make him go?" I snapped, not meaning to sound angry but doing so anyway.

Amaya smiled coyly at me. "Oooooh, Midori misses her boyfriend." she cooed mockingly. I hit her with my pillow, attempting to hide my embarrassment. "He's been here all day, by the way." she said as the pillow made hit her face with a small _thump_. "It's about time he left."

Amaya suddenly turned serious. "What happened?" she asked. "And who did this to you?"

"I don't know." I replied.

"Well…what did he look like?"

I gave Amaya a brief physical description of the killer. Again as I talked about him I felt the nagging feeling that I'd met him somewhere before or at least seen him.

"Hmmm." Amaya nodded slowly. "Well, are you aware of where your father is?"

"Yes." I replied quietly, biting my lip as I felt sadness calling tears to my eyes. "He's dead."

"Oh, so you know." Amaya said.

"Yes. I…saw him. His body." I mumbled, trying my hardest not to cry even though the memory made me want to.

Amaya sucked in air sharply. "Ouch. I didn't think that you'd seen."

"Well, I did. Traumatizing experience." I paused, and then decided to change the subject. "Where's Daichi?"

"He's okay. He's been hospitalized. He wasn't injured, but…I think there's something wrong with his head."

"Huh? Do you mean trauma?'

"Yeah, there you go. He's been a little weird-not his normal self."

I thought about that. Daichi had probably suffered trauma from the event. I decided to brood upon that later, though. First I had to address something.

"Hey, Amaya?" I started, unsure of how to word it. "Uh…well, it's weird, but…well, when I saw the murderer, I got a weird feeling. It was some feeling of recognition; I felt like I knew him from somewhere. It's a little disturbing."

"That's weird." she agreed, raising an eyebrow. "I'll ask around."

I nodded, knowing what she meant. Amaya had _many_ connections-most of which were with very questionable or dangerous people. Out of all the people in the village, she was probably the best person to ask for help with this issue.

"Well, I'm going to have to be on my way soon." Amaya said, gazing at the clock for a second. "Places to go, people to see. Good bye!"

Amaya left. I wished that she hadn't made Shikamaru leave; I wanted to talk to him some more. I felt myself growing tired again, and I drifted off to sleep.


End file.
